High energy photon-neutrino elastic scattering

الأصل · EN

The one-loop helicity amplitudes for the elastic scattering process γν→γν in the Standard Model are computed at high center of mass energies. A general decomposition of the amplitudes is utilized to investigate the validity of some of the key features of our results. In the center of mass, where √s = 2ω, the cross section grows roughly as ω⁶ to near the threshold for W-boson production, √s = mW. Although suppressed at low energies, we find that the elastic cross section exceeds the cross section for γν→γγν when √s>13 GeV. We demonstrate that the scattered photons are circularly polarized and the net value of the polarization is non-zero. Astrophysical implications of high energy photon-neutrino scattering are discussed.